If you're going to use anabolic steroids—or any type of performance enhancing compounds—it's important to run bloodwork at least three to four times per year. It's like getting your pool water checked to make sure there is the right amount of chemicals for it to stay clear and problem free, or checking the air pressure in your car's tires to ensure you don't have a blowout at high speed on the freeway.

What's more, it would be a good idea to get bloodwork before cycling, so you can know where your baseline is and flag any problems ahead of time. For example, you might have elevated liver values from some other medication or health issue. You could have elevated blood glucose levels, indicating you're pre-diabetic.

It's far better to know these things in advance and get them treated as soon as possible. If you know about any red flags beforehand it will help prevent even bigger issues, such as when you have elevated liver values when running a harsh oral steroid. Or you may have high estrogen going into a cycle, so you may want to reduce your levels, or avoid using excessive aromatizing compounds.

When you use anabolic steroids, the pituitary glands of the HPTA axis react to exogenous hormones by going dormant. As a result, your LH and FSH levels will quickly drop to near zero, and your body will no longer produce Testosterone on its own.

Further examples of effects on bloodwork include:

Testosterone, Dianabol, Nandrolone can increase Estrogen (E2) levels.

Trenbolone can quickly strain your lipids and cortisol levels.

Equipoise (EQ, Boldenone) is known to cause elevated RBC (red blood cell) counts.

If you want to use AAS safely, bloodwork is essential.

A pre-cycle check will warn of any potential reason not to use AAS and give a baseline for comparison later on.

A mid-cycle check will show things at their worst from a health perspective.

A test after completing PCT can ensure things have returned to normal.

For those that Blast & Cruise (B&C), it's important to run bloodwork at least 3-4 times per year to ensure health levels are stable and not declining or anomalous for any reason.

It's good to have a baseline knowledge of individual health markers, so be sure to check out our Health Markers page.

How Do I Get Bloodwork?
There are two principal ways to get bloodwork done.

The most common is to request bloodwork from your doctor, give him/her a list of things you want to get done, and s/he will send you to the lab. Some hesitate to do this, as they're afraid of potentially being flagged as a steroid or drug abuser, and they don't want it to potentially affect their health insurance or employment options.

A popular second method of getting bloodwork is ordering it online. This way you independently pay for what you want done, and then take the printed request forms to a private lab.

What Bloodwork do you need before Your First Cycle?
When ordering online, you can usually find a Standard Male Hormone Panel.

This typically includes:

Androgens — You'll need a baseline for your HPTA axis to know if you're already hypogonadal (low T levels), as well as if you've recovered fully after your PCT.

LH/FSH: These gonadotropins stimulate the testes to produce testosterone.

Testosterone, Free Testosterone: Free testosterone should be measured directly, not calculated.

SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin): binds to Testosterone in the bloodstream

Estradiol: E2 is affected by aromatizing hormones. It's good to know if it's high when going in, and when dialing in AI mid-cycle.

Basic Health Markers — These are important to know that you're generally healthy going into the cycle.

CBC (Complete blood count)

Lipids (LDL/HDL): AAS aren't good for cholesterol levels. You'll need a baseline to ensure you're healthy going in.

Liver function (AST/ALT/GGT/Bilirubin): These are mainly important if you're planning on orals. You want to be sure your liver is healthy going into the cycle.

PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen): If this is elevated you could have prostate cancer. If you have prostate cancer and take androgens, it's like throwing gasoline on a fire. Ensure levels are normal prior to starting any AAS.

Insulin, Glucose: you'll want to ensure you're not pre-diabetic.

Not too complicated, right?

Where To Get Private bloodwork
There are many services through out the world that provide individuals the capability to get private paid bloodwork. These services are invaluable to AAS users to monitor health and safety.

In the USA
There are several providers in the USA to choose from.

Note: Unfortunately, testing is unavailable in NY, NJ, MA, MD, and RI. If you're a resident of one of these states you'll have to drive Out-of-State to use Private MD Labs, LabsMD, or any other private lab. Instructions Below.

MA & MD residents only: You can use Health Tests Direct.

Private MD Labs
Private MD Labs — A good and trusted lab with many locations.

Hormone Panel with Estradiol Sensitive and Testosterone LC/MS-MS Same as above, but with LC/MS estrogen test. Use this to get an accurate estrogen reading while running Trenbolone. DO NOT use this to test whether your tren is counterfeit, as it will not count it in the estrogen test.

Anything with Test 070195 will show the actual value for testosterone, rather than “high” or “greater than 1500.”

Thyroid TSH, T4 and T3 Panel optional, check thyroid levels if you suspect anything wrong with them.

Liver Panel This test is important if using oral steroids. This is included in the Hormone Panel for Females. You do not need to order it separately.

Lipid Test to check cholesterol levels

Anything with Test 303756 contains a lipid panel.

ULTA Labs
ULTA Labs offers affordable bloodwork nationwide. Secure and confidential lab testing, most results available in 1-2 business days. Licensed Medical Director in every state that reviews each order.
Synergistic Labs
Synergistic Labs started November 2021 and is growing quickly in the fitness community. They provide fully customizable lab orders through their site. They service every state except NY, NJ, and RI.
LabsMD
Hormone Panel for Females will provide the actual number for testosterone rather than "> 1500". The assay used for testing estradiol will not give a false reading when using tren.
Walgreens
Cholesterol tests are available at most locations.
Bloodwork for residents of NY, NJ, MA, MD, & RI
Private MD Labs, Labs MD:
Add the tests needed to cart.

At checkout, select a LabCorp / Quest location to go to that is outside of your state.

If applicable, apply coupon code (Google search for a 15% coupon code for Private MD Labs) This should give the price needed to pay for the tests.

In a new browser tab, buy a gift certificate of that amount on the Private MD Labs or Labs MD website. Using a credit/debit card with a NY, NJ, MA, MD, or RI billing address should work here.

Use that gift certificate code to pay for the test. NOTE: Some report being able to skip Step 4 and just pay using their credit card, even if the billing information is a NY, NJ, MA, MD, & RI address.

Leave credit card info blank. Put in both Billing Information and Patient Information with your own name, but with an address outside of your state. Others put a out-of-state relative's address (with their permission) with no issues. Nothing should be physically mailed to that address either . . . Billing address shouldn't matter since you didn't put in credit card info, but they ask for it anyway.

Print requisition papers. You may optionally (but recommended) set up an appointment for your desired out-of-state LabCorp / Quest location.

Show up to the LabCorp/Quest location. If asked for ID it's reportedly fine to show your NY, NJ, MA, MD, & RI Drivers License. Alternatively, others have used Passports, Work or School IDs, etc.

Wait to be emailed the lab results.

For Discounted Labs
Make an account and order desired labs on discountedlabs.com

Print requisition papers. You may optionally (but recommended) set up an appointment for your desired out-of-state LabCorp / Quest location.

Show up to the LabCorp / Quest location. If asked for ID it's reportedly fine to show your NY, NJ, MA, MD, & RI Drivers License. Alternatively, others have used Passports, Work or School IDs, etc.

Wait to be emailed the lab results.

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Additional Notes
If running Trenbolone ...
When running Tren, if you get your Estrogen (E2) levels checked, make sure to get the LC/MS sensitive estrogen reading. Why? Most estrogen tests are ECLIA or RIA. These will count tren as estrogen. This will give you a false estrogen reading if you are trying to dial your AI in. The only time you may want the ECLIA or RIA method is when you wish to see if there actually is Trenbolone in a vial that you believe to be Trenbolone—but this shouldn't be necessary, right? You wouldn't work with a source you don't trust, would you?

Tren has negative impact on the following that you should check if running it: Liver Function Tests (LFTs); fractionated cholesterol (HDL/LDL), AST/ALT/GGT/Bilrubin (liver hormones that show how well things are functioning).

Haematology: Measures haemoglobin, red blood cell numbers and size, as well as distribution of white blood cell types.

Electrolytes and LFT's: gives information on liver and kidney function.

Fractionated cholesterol: HDL/LDL ratio and triglycerides.

Iron studies: Total serum iron, transferrin levels (the carrier protein) and ferritin (the tissue storage protein).

Thyroid Function Tests: T3, T4, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) will tell you if there are any problems with your thyroid.

Cortisol: If your stress hormones are elevated it could point to other as-yet undiagnosed preexisting disorders or conditions. Tren has a tendency to elevate cortisol levels.

hGH, IGF-I: Only necessary if using hGH or hGH releasing peptides to measure effectiveness. A moderate rise will be seen with AAS use alone.

hGH stands for human Growth Hormone, a 171 amino acid polypeptide hormone released from the Anterior Pituitary gland in the brain. Its release is controlled by at least two hormones from the Hypothalamus...GH Releasing Factor and Somatostatin. GHRF stimulates GH in a pulsitile manner, while Somatostatin inhibits it's release. IGF-I, which is released from the liver into the circulation in response to GH release, is also thought to inhibit GH release in a negative feedback loop.

IGF-I is thought to mediate many of the effects of hGH. In response to hGH, muscle and many other tissues, can make their own IGF-I inside the cells. The resultant IGF-I synthesis effects both neighboring cells, and the cell itself via the Akt pathway (autocrine/paracrine secretion). Some of those neighboring cells in muscle are satellite cells, which are stem cells present inside the muscle sarcolemma, but outside of the actual muscle cells. IGF-I has the effect of increasing their number, and to differentiate (change them) into muscle cells. The satellite cell changes into a myoblast (primitive muscle cell) which then fuses into an existing fibre (particularly an inured one) and donates its nucleus.

When a muscle has to grow or repair, it requires more DNA which is donated by the satellite cells. This is to keep the protein/DNA ratio constant as a cell grows. Skeletal muscle is unusual in that it is a multi-nucleated cell. This is thought necessary as skeletal muscle cells are so relatively large that one nucleus could not adequately serve the whole cell.

The effects of IGF-I administration for bodybuilding purposes are controversial in terms of efficacy of low (microgram) dosages. In clinical trials it has been used in the range of 8-10 milligrams per day. There seems to be a great disparity here between anecdotal reports and published studies.

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